Talk:Smells Like Teen Spirit/@comment-3575890-20141026034559
In defense of Mami, she is by far the most complex of all the magical girls despite having the least amount of screen time. Of all the magical girls, whom no doubt are all special in their own right of course, Mami nonetheless stands out to me the most and that is because she is the antithesis of the standard magical girl and in that an ideal foil to all the others. The primary component that separates Mami from the others is her selfishness. Yes, be as it may that she is my favorite character, I can openly admit that Mami is self-involved. Not in that she doesn't have the capacity to care for anyone besides herself or is vain or anything of that sort, but just that she is a survivor and got by all on her own for as long as she did on account of her prioritizing self-preservation above all else. Mami does not live for others, but for herself. She drags two innocent non-magical girls into her dangerous lifestyle because she is so desperate for companionship and so lonely from being forced to keep her alternative life a secret from the rest of the world, and furtherto the matter, herself at a distance from everyone, that she violates the most important clause of the very moral code that all magical girls are obligated to abide by, which is to protect the innocent. The responsible thing to do would have been to not allow Madoka and Sayaka to accompany her on her missions, but instead befriending them and introducing them to her world - that was undoubtedly the human thing to do, and this is precisely why I love Mami. She is so painstakingly human. Unlike Homura, Madoka, Sayaka and even Kyoko, whom all made selfless wishes upon the officiation of their contracts, Mami was the only one that became a magical girl for HERSELF. She was the only one that made an executive decision to take on the job description that she was fully aware entailed eternal life-threatening consequences, based on her own self interest and without a shadow of a doubt, her wish, while not the most selfless like the others' was by far the most informed and wisest. She was the only magical girl that truly had no other choice but to contract with Kyuubey. Her choice was not brash nor did it come from a rather irrational place like the other girls' because Mami as a whole was a very levelheaded, wise, and mature person, which is also why her relationships with each of the girls was conducive with a big sister/little sister dynamic. The big sister of the group was essentially what she was. That said, she did not have the altruistic mindset of her peers either. She did not wish to be a magical girl under the guise of wanting to save others or to make a difference in the world; she just simply wanted to live and so she struck a deal with the furry equivalent of Satan to make that happen. This led to many years of isolation and loneliness that gradually built to the point of where she would not hesitate to put others in the way of mortal peril to fulfill her desire for companionship (and having grown so accustomed to being held to impossible expectations, she felt that she had to put on a show to impress the girls each time she brought them into her missions in order to gain their acceptance) despite that she did care very deeply for the girls, her desperation to rid herself of her loneliness outweighed that of her love for the girls, and it's so inherently selfish, but also heartbreakingly human and says so much about Mami's psychology and where she stood mentally and emotionally despite always putting up a facade of well managed coolheadedness. In summation, I find her to be the most relatable, identifiable, flawed, and ultimately human of the girls and that is why she is my queen.